Mary Jane NICHOL born Oct 1845 in Missouri married a "DOYLE" (who was born in Ireland) sometime in the early 1870's. They had three children in the 1870's (Mary, Nelly and Joseph). The father dies sometime before 1880 and I pick Mary Jane DOYLE and the three children up in Des Moines (Polk County), IA along with her mother Mary NICHOL. The following year in 1881 Mary Jane DOYLE married Samuel M. Miller. They have a son William Aaron MILLER in 1882 in Des Moines. The next time I pick the family up is on the 1900 census for Madison County, IL. Mary Jane is once again a widow. The copy is bad, but it looks like she has had 7 children and 5 are living. She is living on State Street in Alton with: Joseph Doyle born Sept 1876 in "Illinois" (1880 census states "Missouri") William Miller born May 1882 in "Illinois" (he was born in Iowa) Hallie(sp?) Miller born Nov 1888 in "Illinois" (probably Iowa, also) Mary Jane's daughter Mary is listed in the household, also and is married (for 9 years) with two children: GARDNER, Albert born June 1872 in New Jersey GARDNER, Mary born April 1874 in "Illinois" (1880 census states "Missouri") GARDNER, Roy born Dec 1890 in Illinois GARDNER, Carl born Jan 1893 in Illinois Before my father-in-law died he said that the GARDNER family lived somewhere in Webster Groves in the mid 1900's. On the 1900 census Nelly does not appear. Based on the 7 children born and 5 living, I would assume that Nelly has married and the two children that have not survived were born possibly between William (1882) and "Hallie" (1888) -- but that is just my guess at this point. Any of this look familiar to anybody? Melissa Miller in Wonderful West St. Louis County, Missouri! Listowner: halbach-l@rootsweb.com and ruck-l@rootsweb.com Visit my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~wemillers3